


Deck the Halls

by Asterne_In_a_Sky, MidoriKurenaiYume



Series: Winter Wonderland [3]
Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Allergies, Alternate Universe, Dialogue, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Young
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-22 02:29:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16589060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asterne_In_a_Sky/pseuds/Asterne_In_a_Sky, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriKurenaiYume/pseuds/MidoriKurenaiYume
Summary: Going to a party is fine, as long as some people don't risk putting your friend's life in danger.





	Deck the Halls

**Author's Note:**

> A short story with Arturia and Gilgamesh somewhat younger.  
> ([here](https://agilartlogbook.tumblr.com/post/180376672185/deck-the-halls) on tumblr)
> 
>  **Asterne_In_a_Sky** : Just a shoutout to my teacher who also had allergies(to crabs). Really such stuff should never be overlooked :( 
> 
> **MidoriKurenaiYume** : I do wonder whether the characters from Fate have any allergies at all... enjoy the story ;)
> 
> Title: from a Christmas song (which was also sung by Kalafina :P)  
> THEME: friendship.

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Everything had been going rather well, at least until Shinji proved how much of an idiot he was – as if such proof had actually been necessary.

Well, things had been going _relatively_ well, which meant that everything was well aside from the fact that Arturia still wasn’t aware of Gilgamesh’s interest in her, even though he hadn’t been subtle in dropping hints. The problem was, she wasn’t being rude or insensitive; she mostly got along well with him – they loved bickering – but she was also clueless. She had not noticed how differently he behaved with her when compared to everyone else, and he would have been lying if he claimed it didn’t affect him at all.

He had known her for years, ever since his mother had brought him over to the Tohsaka residence when they were still kids and Arturia had been playing there with Rin. Mrs. Tohsaka had needed to take Rin to the dentist’s and he had been left alone with the small blonde girl. Their interactions had escalated into a huge fight about the ‘right’ way to play volleyball (his ideas about the rules included everything _he_ decided), which had made them settle on a truce only once it was time for their afternoon snack.

Since that had then ended up in Arturia almost dying, their unlikely friendship had been born.

Now, over ten years later, they had all been invited to Shinji’s summer party. Gilgamesh had been extremely reluctant about attending, since he deeply disliked the mongrel, but Arturia had insisted long enough to finally persuade him. He wasn’t unaware of how much power she obviously had over him, but he knew she wasn’t the kind of person who would ever try to exploit it, which was one of the reasons why he surprisingly didn’t mind it.

Thankfully, the party at the Matous’ large gardens turned out to be mostly bearable. There weren’t too many people he disliked and his glare was enough to keep them at a distance, which allowed him to spend time around Arturia – and occasionally Rin, when she wasn’t being a brat – without being disturbed. She seemed to be very pleased by his presence there, something that made him decide that having been convinced to come wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

It was remarkable that the food offered was very good as well. Arturia wasn’t a huge fan of sweets and desserts and therefore stuck to salty snacks, while Gilgamesh, after Rin exasperated him enough, ultimately agreed to try the ‘delicious homemade ice-cream Shinji is offering’.

Gilgamesh eyed it with evident distrust, and inwardly decided that the mongrel had better not have made it himself, because otherwise there was no way he would eat the colourful contents of his bowl, no matter how inviting they looked.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Arturia coming closer; not truly surprising, since everything that had to do with food worked like a magnet with her.

She gave Shinji a small nod as he immediately offered her a bowl as well with a glance in Gilgamesh’s direction, knowing that he was more likely to eat it if Arturia did too.

Rin decided to take one herself and address Shinji as she did so.

“You didn’t do it yourself, right? I think Sakura did?” Without waiting for an answer, she continued, giving her own bowl a critical glance as well, “What’s the flavour anyway? Not fruit I hope?”

Shinji ignored her comment about it being actually Sakura’s work and nodded.

“No fruit at all,” he assured her confidently. “And I can’t reveal the flavour! It’s a surprise!”

The first thought Gilgamesh had was that Shinji had made up an extremely poor excuse to avoid saying that he didn’t know what the flavour was, but then he reconsidered when he saw the boy’s smug grin. So he probably _did_ know, but wanted to hear them all try and figure it out.

Since he already had the bowl and Arturia and Rin were looking for cutlery, ready to dig in too, Gilgamesh suppressed a sigh and brought his spoon to his mouth.

His taste buds told him that it wasn’t bad at all, and he was about to give a short nod of approval, when he finally registered what the flavour was, and his eyes widened.

Head snapping up abruptly and seeing Arturia’s spoon about to reach her mouth, he jumped forward without thinking and knocked it right out of her hand, making the ice-cream land on Shinji’s nose with impressive precision.

She blinked at his actions, while Rin openly gaped, but Gilgamesh ignored them both and grabbed Shinji by his collar.

“How much of an uninformed, dim-witted idiot are you?!” he snarled darkly. “You could have killed her!”

Shinji was trembling like a leaf and staring at him in shock, while Arturia immediately stepped forward with Rin, aiming to loosen Gilgamesh’s hold on him.

Crimson eyes flashed towards her and he hissed, “Don’t eat that, Arturia!”

As she stared at him uncomprehendingly, he turned the full force of his blazing glare back on Shinji, who cowered. “You said there was no fruit in the ice-cream. I guess you didn’t know that strawberries _are_ a fruit, did you?”

Next to him, Arturia inhaled sharply, glancing down at the ice-cream and then back at him, understanding now why he had become so furious. Rin gave her a confused look, while Shinji still attempted to get free from Gilgamesh’s hold.

“Gilgamesh, please let him go,” Arturia said slowly after a few moments of silence. “Neither he nor Rin knew.”

Even though the look in his eyes told everyone that he was still livid, Gilgamesh decided to listen and release the other boy, who stumbled back a few steps. By now, a small group had gathered around them, with everyone staring in both apprehension and curiosity.

“I have a severe allergy to strawberries, therefore I definitely can’t eat this ice-cream,” Arturia explained, looking at both Rin and Shinji, and then tried to defuse the tense situation by adding, “All is fine though. No harm done.”

Rin gave her a nod and, displaying her bossy skills, quickly managed to disperse the crowd that had gathered before giving them all a quick smile, grabbing Shinji’s arm and dragging him towards another part of the garden. They could hear her berating him about the difference between vegetables and fruit as they walked away.

Gilgamesh made to follow them, clearly intending to have some words with Shinji again, but Arturia’s hand was on his arm, intending to both calm him and not allowing him to leave.

“Don’t ruin the party because of this incident, Gilgamesh. Besides, nothing truly happened.”

He studied her briefly.

“How come they didn’t know about your allergy?” he questioned. “I would expect the Shinji mongrel not to know, but Rin is a close friend of yours.”

Arturia shrugged. “It’s not that I didn’t want her to know, it just never came up,” she pointed out. “It’s not like, for example, being lactose intolerant. An allergy to strawberries is very specific.”

“But it’s a _severe_ allergy,” he argued, his eyes narrowing as he emphasized, “You could have died.”

A hint of a smile appeared on her face, together with something close to amusement flashing through her green eyes.

“Yet thanks to your intervention, I didn’t.” There was a short silence. “Thank you for that.”

He nodded, accepting her thanks, although he still wanted to insist on the subject. He had been there when she had eaten strawberries for the first time as a kid, and seeing her choking and sputtering violently, all red-faced and swollen, desperately attempting to breathe as doctors and nurses had rushed her into an ambulance, was an image he doubted was ever going to be erased from his mind.

She prevented him from saying anything else as she repeated, “Don’t let this incident ruin the party. Come enjoy the rest of the afternoon.”

He was ready to protest, but she cut him off by turning to face him, her eyes now looking very serious.

“Did you think I asked you to come today so that you could just sit around and be pretty? I want to spend time with you.”

This certainly caught his attention. Noticing the faint pink that had appeared on her cheeks, he realized that perhaps his interest in her was neither unknown to her nor one-sided as he had thought.

An almost theatrical sigh left his lips, and she looked up at him in slight surprise.

“Fine,” he agreed, something oddly soft flashing through his features as he regarded her fondly for a second, before being replaced by his signature smirk. “Though I will say, I resent the fact that you called me _pretty._ ”

She smiled fully and, to both their pleasure, grabbed his hand, more than ready to go with him to enjoy the rest of the party.

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